Best way to travel from Venice to Cinque Terre?

Hello emilymrose81, and welcome to the forum!

First you have to realize that travelling from Venice to CT is probably 8+ hours door to door because of the distance - you are crossing Italy at almost it widest point - and the logistics on both ends. Probably a water taxi to the train station on one end and local train or ferry on the other.

Search Trenitalia for travel from Venezia S. Lucia to La Spezia Centrale which is the nearest city to the CT. From there you will need to transfer to local trains or a ferry to get to the CT towns proper.
https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

You travel will probably be fast train from Venice to Florence and then local train to La Spezia (about 5 hours). Fast trains can generally be purchased about 2 months in advance and come with reserved seats and various classes of tickets. You can get discounts for booking inflexible tickets early but don't miss your train. Regionale local trains come without seat reservations and don't change in price.

There have been several threads discussing this travel recently so I suggest you search for recent postings on this topic.

Hope that helps, have a great trip,
=Tod

We drove from Venice airport to Porto Venere April 29, 2024. Left Venice airport at about 14:00, took fastest route to Viano for an overnight at Borgo Cadonega (lovely hotel and gardens), that drive was dull, neither scenic nor ugly. The first half of the drive the next day was very scenic through mountains. We stopped at Lerici for a late lunch before heading to Porto Venere, our 3 nights base for using the ferry to visit the CT.

Which village in the CT?

Monterosso is the largest and therefore there are more accommodations, restaurants and such.

There are several options to get to CT from Venice via train.

I’d probably choose the journey with the least number of train changes which would entail traveling from Venice (Venezia S. Lucia) to Monterosso with a train change in Milan ( Milano Centrale)
This journey will take around 6.25 hours.

You may also choose the journey from Venice to Florence then onto La Spezia and then to the CT village of your choice.

When booking your train ticket book it as one journey;

Departure ( from): Venezia S.Lucia

Arrival (to): Monterosso (or another CT village)

Check train schedules here:
trenitalia.com

You can easily visit all the 5 villages via frequent regional trains, or via ferry (except for Corneglia which does not have a ferry port)

My mom and I stayed in Monterosso (many years ago) and enjoyed visiting all the other 4 villages.

Enjoy your trip!